Week 9 Story: Hidden in the Himalayas

The man grew more and more excited as he watched a dark figure skitter through the trees, ducking between branches and hiding behind trunks. He quickly pulled out his flip phone and took a grainy photo. A few minutes passed and then the trees began to shake as though a large animal was leaping through the trees. He ran back to the cottage and quickly dialed the number for those in his inner circle.

(Sahil's photo of Hanuman; Image Source)

~~~~~~~

The phone rang furiously off the hook as the group stomped back into their makeshift home at the base of the Himalayas. The leader, Rohan, ran to answer the phone, shaking with excitement at the news it may hold. As the watcher on the other end reported his findings, Rohan's pulse quickened. At the news that Sahil had even captured pictures, Rohan thought he might faint. He quickly rallied his team and they practically sprinted to Site 17, where Sahil was waiting.

~~~~~~~

"Alright gang, we've spent our whole lives preparing for this moment. Today's the big day. Hanuman has evaded us this long, but we know he is somewhere in these mountains, walking the earth as long as Rama's praises are sung. Sahil was able to capture pictures earlier today and they closely resemble the monkey king, so we are led to believe that he is in these parts. He must have a divine message for us or he wouldn't be lurking so closely. Let's split up into teams - I'll go with Anaya to the west. Kiara, you and Himmat take the east. Sahil, as our tracker, you go straight ahead. Sound the whistle if you find something worthwhile, otherwise, we'll meet back here at sunset."

~~~~~~~

"Hey Rohan, look at this! It must belong to Hanuman!"

Rohan jogged over to where Anaya was and saw her standing in the biggest footprint he had ever seen. Hanuman had the ability to change his size, so the only explanation for this footstep was Hanuman in his large form. Rohan let out a giddy laugh, his years of searching were finally coming to fruition with his best friends by his side. With a whoop, he sounded the whistle to tell the others of the news.

(Hanuman's footprint; Image Source)

~~~~~~~

Hanuman sat in the tree directly above the group, chuckling to himself as they fretted about looking for him. Of course, he was thankful for their devotion to him, but he also liked to have a bit of fun. If nothing else, it was a way to pass the time. Someday, when the group most needed it, he would make himself known to them. However, today was not that day. Looking for Hanuman brought these friends together and gave them purpose, and he did not want to remove their central cause just yet. As the group split up again, Hanuman leaned back and closed his eyes, reminiscing over his adventures and looking forward to leading his devoted followers on even more. 

Bibliography: 
Bhima and Hanuman from "The Mahabharata, A Summary" by John Mandeville Macfie
Author's Note: 
The original story focuses on the meeting of Bhima and Hanuman, who are actually half brothers by their father, Vayu. Bhima tries to move a monkey laying across the path, but is unable to despite his massive strength, and it turns out to be Hanuman. The two have a lengthy chat and brother bonding time. My story is obviously nowhere like this, but it was simply inspired by the reminder that Hanuman is in fact immortal, as long as the praises of Rama are sung. I thought it would be fun to do a story pulling from bigfoot enthusiasts, but instead having them focused on finding Hanuman in the Himalayas. I tried to use multiple perspectives which is not something I had done, but I think it worked to show the excitement of each group member with every discovery, as well as portraying Hanuman's fun side. I have always seen Hanuman as a bit of a jokester, so I think this fits him, but he also does care about these people and has used their draw to him as a bonding agent for the group to form friendships.

Reading Notes: Epified Mahabharata, Part B

I really enjoyed the first section of these videos, as I am able to get a much better grasp of the basic story line. Laying out the notes in this format has helped a lot too, so I'm hoping to continue with that!

Episode 9: Son of the Sun

• Kunti, Pandu's wife, has a secret - she had a son with the sun god
• Her sun had armor and celestial earrings - he was clearly divine
• Since she was unmarried, she sent her son down the river in a basket (like Moses)

Episode 10: Pandu's Curse

• Pandu and his wives enter the forest to enjoy nature - he took to hunting
• One day, he accidentally shot a hermit couple having sex, thinking they were deer
• The hermit cursed Pandu so that the moment he entered intimacy with a woman, he would die
• Pandu decided to stay in isolation along with his wives
• Kunti decides to tell Pandu about her gift to be able to summon gods and make them fall in love with her (without mentioning her child)
• Pandu's thrilled and asks Kunti to quickly summon a god and bear Hastanaput's future kings

Episode 11: Sons of Pandu

• Kunti first calls Yama, god of truth, who gives her a son - Yudhishthira (mental rock)
• Kunti then calls the wind god, who gives her another son - Bhima (strong and fast)
• She then calls Indra, who gives her another son - Arjuna (great warrior/archer)
• She uses her mantra to call gods for Madri
• Madri has sons with the Ashwin twins - Nakula and Sahadeva
• Pandu loses control and forces himself on Madri, which kills him due to his curse
• Madri follows him into a funeral pyre, leaving Kunti as the mother of the five Pandavas

The sons of Pandu; Image Source

Episode 12: One Hundred Sons

• When Gandhari (Dhritarashtra's wife) hears that Kunti has borne sons, she is nervous because the eldest born child of either brother (Dhritarashtra or Pandu) would inherit the throne of Hastanaput
• She becomes pregnant with Dhritarashtra's child, but it was a very troubled one
• She gave birth to a lifeless lump
• In her despair, she ordered a maid to cast that lump of flesh into the forest
• Vyasa stops her and divides the lump into 100 pieces, immersing each piece into a vat of oil, which began the future of the Kuru clan
• Gandhari's children began forming in those vats
• Bad omens began forming around Hastanaput
• There was something demonic about the 100 sons 
• Now Kunti returns...

Episode 13: Hate and Hurt

• Gandhari and Dhritarashtra's eldest child, Duryodhana particularly disliked Bhima because grandfather Bhishma favored Bhima
• Duryodhana found that he could not defeat Bhima in wrestling matches - Duryodhana grew to hate Bhima as Bhima became more and more beloved
• Duryodhana's uncle, Gandhari's brother, became his mentor - he told Duryodhana that the Pandavas were pretenders and he needed to defeat them
• He puts sleeping herbs in their food and pushes Bhima into a lake to drown

Episode 14: The Magic Potion

• As Bhima falls, poisonous snakes begin biting into him, yet he is not killed
• Instead, he woke up and fought off the snakes, reversing the situation
• The king of the serpents ends up being Bhima's grandfather and Bhima was given a drink that enabled him to face and defeat many threats to his and his brother's life
• Gave him the strength of a thousand elephants and transformed him into a hero

Episode 15: Drona

• Duryodhana is confused and unhappy at Bhima's return to Hastanaput
• Bhishma realized that the boys needed a teacher to master the way of war - Drona

Episode 16: Drona Trains the Pandavas

• The boys soon began displaying their prowess to Drona
•  Yudhishthira - excellent charioteer
• Nakula & Sahadeva - talented swordsmen
• Bhima - strongest son of all, talented at the mace
• Arjuna - perfect warrior, wielded all weapons with equal ease and was adept at hand to hand combat. He was most drawn to archery
• Drona decided he could be taught the use of the divine weapons

Episode 17: Ekalavya's Story

• Ekalavya - a hunter who proved to be the most talented of archers
• Not a warrior/prince/etc.
• Arjuna asks him who his guru was and how he learned the art of archery
• He answers, Drona
• Arjuna is furious, accusing Drona of betraying him and his ambition, but Drona has no knowledge of Ekalavya
• Ekalavya tells him that he had gone to Drona to be trained but Drona had denied him due to his humble background
• This pushed Ekalavya to be extremely devoted and become the best archer in the world
• Drona orders him to cut off the thumb of his right hand to prevent his talent from remaining

Reading Notes: Epified Mahabharata, Part A

I had a more difficult time understanding the Mahabharata than I did the Ramayana, I think because of all the different characters involved. I enjoy these kinds of videos and I'm hoping that they will help me understand the story more thoroughly.

Episode 1: Shantanu the Unfortunate

• King Shantanu marries Ganga (goddess of the Ganges), under the promise that he will never question her choices
• She drowns their first 7 children and he says nothing due to his promise, but at the 8th child, he stops her
• She had promised 8 cursed vasus that she would give birth to them and then immediately kill them to free them from mortality
• After telling Shantanu this, she leaves with their child, the 8th son

Episode 2: Devavrata Returns

• 16 years later, Shantanu is mourning on the banks of the Ganges, lamenting the loss of his wife and son
• He sees a skilled archer, which Ganga reveals to be his son, Devavrata
• Shantanu is thrilled and brings Devavrata back to his kingdom
• Not long after, he falls in love with a fisherman's daughter, but the fisherman refuses to grant her hand because her children would always be second to Prince Devavrata and his children

Episode 3: Devavrata Becomes Bhishma

• Devavrata vows to give up the throne and become celibate, never marrying and never having children so that his father could marry his love, Satyavati
• He was renamed Bhishma: "he of the terrible oath"
• His father was heartbroken and filled with doom because of his son's oath, but he declared that his virtuous son would be able to choose the moment of death - death could never touch Bhishma without his consent

Episode 4: Desperation of Bhishma

• Bhishma watches over the throne as a guardian, but keeps his oath
• After his father's death, he becomes a father figure to his two half brothers, bringing them up to be capable kings
• One of the boys dies, and the other (who is in poor health), inherits the throne
• Bhishma worries that if something happens that there will be no heir to the throne, so he finds his brother, Vichitravirya, a wife
• He kidnaps three princesses - Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika

Episode 5: Amba's Ruin

• Amba, the eldest, confesses that she is in love with another king and to please let her go
• Bhishma lets her go and apologizes
• Amba goes to her beloved, but he denies her, telling her that she had been taken by another man and he could no longer accept her
• Amba returns to Bhishma, begging him to marry her so that she is not humiliated by being alone, but he refuses due to his terrible oath
• Amba was furious and blamed Bhishma for ruining her life
• A sage who had been one of Bhishma's mentors hears Amba's story and grows furious at Bhishma, and they fight furiously for 23 days
• Amba's warrior gives up and leaves
• She declares that she is going to get revenge on Bhishma

Episode 6: Satyavati's Secret

• King Vichitravirya dies - the kingdom now has no king or prince (he never had children)
• Bhishma still refuses to father the children of Ambika and Ambalika
• Satyavati is forced to tell Bhishma that she actually had another son before meeting Shantanu
• They had Vyasa, a child blessed to be the greatest poet the world had ever seen
• Vyasa grew into a man within moments and promised to appear when she summoned him
• Vyasa comes and Satyavati begs him to father the children of Ambika and Ambalika
• The women are terrified, Vyasa is scary to look at and they do not want to be with him

Episode 7: Sons of Vyasa

• When Vyasa visits Ambika, she closes her eyes - the child born to her was blind (Dhritarashtra)
• He grew to be strong and kind
• When Vyasa visits Ambalika, she turned pale with fear - the child born to her was pale and unhealthy (Pandu)
• He grew to be a great archer who was loved by his people
• Satyavati is furious and tells Vyasa to visit Ambalika again
• Ambalika sends in her place a servant girl, who didn't fear Vyasa - she gave birth to a healthy child (Vidura)
• He grew to be wise and extremely learned
• Considered an avatar of Yama (god of truth)
• All were taught about politics, warfare, etc.
• Unspoken rivalry between Dhritarashtra and Pandu
• Uncle Bhishma never noticed, but Vidura did

Episode 8: The Blind Bride

• Dhritarashtra takes the throne when the time comes
• Pandu had no objections and was content to serve as the army commander
• Everyone knew that while Dhritarashtra was the king, it was Pandu who really ruled Hastanaput
• When it came time to create alliances, Bhishma arranges a marriage between Dhritarashtra and Gandhari
• The wife vows to give up her sight, blindfolding herself for life
• Her brother could not bear to see her ruin her life, and he vows to avenge his sister (even though it was her choice..)
• Pandu marries two wives - Kunti and Madri
• Pandu soon finds out that his elder queen, Kunti, has a secret that she has been keeping

Gandhari, the blind bride; Image Source

Week 8 Progress

I am pretty happy with my progress in this class so far, although I wish I was more ahead. I have a weekly routine in place to get my assignments done, but I have not found the time to work ahead, which I really wanted to do. Every week, I've tried to do at least one extra credit option (generally the blog comments), but I've fallen out of that in the last couple of weeks because I've been really overwhelmed with other stuff that's going on.

Tomorrow through Sunday is spring retreat for my sorority, which has taken up a majority of my time. I'm in charge of planning the weekend for 80 girls so that's been my sole focus, but I'm hoping that after that, I will have a lot more time to get ahead in this class and my other online class to help myself out for the rest of the semester. This semester is flying by and I am nervous for everything that still has to be done before I walk across that stage, but I'm so excited.

(Time flies; Image Source)

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

Overall, the feedback I have gotten from other students has been very helpful. Everybody has been very encouraging, which has been nice since I can doubt my writing capabilities as I mentioned in the last post. Particularly now that the storybooks have started, the feedback has been helpful in knowing what to improve on as well as giving suggestions for new paths to consider. The most useful comments I've gotten are those that are specific in detailing what the reader needs from me. It's hard to please everyone and I don't know what exactly people think needs improved unless they explicitly say it, so details help!

I think I have gotten a lot better at leaving feedback for other students. I try to point out the good, but then go a step further and point out things that I think have room for improvement. I generally have a hard time criticizing people, even if it's in a kind and respectful way, since I tend to be a bit of a people pleaser, but the online format has helped me overcome some of that.

The blog comments are one of my favorite parts of every week because I think it's so fun to get to know people and then see their creative writing process. All the weekly stories are so interesting and it's cool to see the different writing styles and how one reading inspires dozens of completely different stories.

Looking forward, I'd like to try to expand my stories more based on the comments I've gotten. When I get a bit of time in the next couple weeks, I hope to be able to dive into the feedback I've been given and use it wisely rather than letting it go to waste.

It's so important to use feedback to grow and not see it as a criticism or 

attack, it's easy to be your own worst enemy! (Image Source)

Week 8 Reading and Writing

It is always good to take some time to reflect on what you've accomplished, so that's what this week is all about. I can't believe we're already at week 8 of this semester! 

Coming into this class, I was excited for the reading, but very leery about the creative writing. Once I start writing, I enjoy it and think I can tell decent stories, but I have a difficult time getting those creative juices flowing. I have been pleasantly surprised by the fact that I've enjoyed even the writing portions of the class! I do struggle to get going, but I've been really proud of some of the work I've done. It seems silly, but I was so happy when Laura included my posts twice in the daily announcements. My reading notes have been quite helpful, as I've tried to focus my note taking on stories that I think I might like to retell. There's been a couple times where I ended up going back and choosing a different story to inspire my writing, but for the most part, my notes have been effective. I don't have a favorite story that I've told, but I'm proud of myself for drawing from different storytelling styles for each week so far. I've tried some more modern settings, retelling from someone else's perspective, giving background on a story, and so on, all of which have challenged me to think more critically about the stories we are reading. 

One of my favorite images I've used is the one I found of a water nymph, who I named Harponi in my week 6 story, The Hermit's Curse. I knew I wanted a picture of a beautiful water nymph to illustrate this story, but I had difficulties finding one who I thought would be in the east. Most of the pictures I found that were available for use were of blonde women, which I didn't think made sense with the setting of this story. I searched for quite some time before finally finding this dark haired nymph at Pixabay! She wasn't quite what I had imagined, but I thought she fit much better than the others I had found and her eyes certainly seem like those that would be able to capture most men's souls with just a twinkle!

Harponi the water nymph; Image Source

In moving forward, I think I just need to trust myself more with writing. It's important to give yourself creative license and not count yourself out, which is something I struggle with. In moving forward, I want to give myself more space and room to explore!

Week 7 Story Planning: Hidden in the Himalayas

Bhima and Hanuman
By: John Mandevill Macfie

• Recall that Hanuman remained on earth at the end of the Ramayana and he is destined to remain here as long as the praises of Rama are sung. 
• This is his one appearance in the Mahabharata, but we can be sure that he was in fact on earth during all of this, even if we weren't actively seeing him. In fact, he would still be on earth today since Rama's story is still told.
• Hanuman and Bhima are half-brothers, because they were both fathered by the wind god, Vayu.
• Bhima is walking along a path when he stumbles across a monkey (Hanuman)
• He tries to pick it up and move it because he regularly swings around dead elephants as weapons, but finds that he can't move Hanuman
• Hanuman then raises and explains who he is, telling of his time with Rama
• I wonder if at this time Rama is glorified like he is today
• Hanuman goes into his giant form at Bhima's request
• They talk about the different ages of earth: 
• Krita Yuga - complete virtue - evil didn't exist, so neither did gods or demons. All were equal and Brahma was attainable by all
• Treta Yuga - sin has entered, sacrifices become regular, men very devoted to worship
• Dwapara Yuga - 50% virtue - men become divided, subject to passion, less devoted, etc.
• Kali Yuga - only 25% virtue - evil, famine, disease, sloth, anger, etc. prevail
• Hanuman also discusses the four castes and how they reach heaven:
• Brahmin (priests, teachers, and protectors of sacred learning) - achieve heaven by their self-discipline and worship
• Vaishya (farmers, land owners, etc.) - gifts and hospitality
• Kshatriya (warriors and governors) - protecting men
• Shudra (lowest caste) - Hanuman said nothing

I want my story to be about people seeking to find Hanuman today. I imagine he'd be somewhere in the Himalayas so they will conduct their search there. I see Hanuman being the kind who would get as close to humanity as possible without giving himself away, so he would maintain his regular monkey form so as to decrease suspicion. However, the people looking for him have seen large monkey footprints they attribute to Hanuman, as well as several grainy photos of him leaping from tree to tree. Here's a website with an example of the footprint and a supposed photograph of Hanuman. This website also discusses a mantra that is meant to call Hanuman to his devotees when chanted, so that could also play into the story. 

 I haven't decided yet if they should actually find him or not. If they did, it would obviously be purposeful on Hanuman's part, because if he didn't want to be found he wouldn't be. I wonder if he would have a reason for allowing this group to find him? If not, they could continue their search further down the line, hoping to one day get a glimpse of Hanuman themselves. 

(Giant footprint inside of the Veerabhadra Temple, 

said to be Hanuman's; Image Source)